For fans of Brooklyn-based experimental metal band Liturgy and Hunter Hunt-Hendrix, they can anticipate two separate full length releases in 2020, respectively. Liturgy’s follow up to their third full length studio album, 2015’s The Ark Work, titled HAQQ and Liturgy’s Hunter Hunt-Hendrix will release the soundtrack to Origin of the Alimonies opera which features, according to a November 6 press release, “… Liturgy along with musicians Nate Wooley, Eve Essex, Josh Modney, Carrie Frey, Caleigh Drane, James Ilgenfritz, Marilu Donovan, and Eric Wubbels.”
Two hard hitting tracks have been released from both aforementioned projects that casts a wide range of musical spectrums that both Liturgy and Hunter Hunt-Hendrix display with virtuosic appreciations. Liturgy’s latest enthrallingly cinematic single “God of Love” and Hunter Hunt-Hendrix’s “Apparition of the Eternal Church” from the Origin of the Alimonies opera which, according to the aforementioned press release, “…is making its live West Coast debut on November 16th at REDCAT amid West Coast Liturgy tour dates that start this coming weekend.”
By the way HAQQ is sounding with the release of “God of Love” it appears that Liturgy is breaking away from the more traditional guttural and aggressive sounding black metal to incorporating other genres of music whether more electronic, more progressive rock and most apparent are the operatic theatrical elements as well. With this noticeable shift in tone from the group, Liturgy’s “God of Love” is receiving a plethora of praise. As previously reported in the press release Liturgy’s latest musical offering “God of Love” the various positive mutual consensus is as follows “…Tiny Mix Tapes praised, stating: ‘Between its rhapsodic strings, cascading harp, and thunderous wall of drums, this new track sees the band finding yet another new paradigm in their legacy of avant-garde metal,”’ while Brooklyn Vegan noted ‘it’s an eight-minute track that works an orchestra and a harp into Liturgy’s increasingly distinct brand of post-black metal,’ and The Needle Drop exclaimed: ‘[‘God of Love’ is] transcendental, powerful, amazing work. No band right now is putting out guitars, and drums, and compositions that sound like this, and it is insane. It’s amazing, actually.'”
The orchestral influence on Liturgy is obvious in influencing Hunter Hunt-Hendrix to release the soundtrack from the opera, Origin of the Alimonies. Liturgy’s current touring roster includes Hunter Hunt-Hendrix (lead vocals/guitar), Tia Vincent-Clark (bass), Bernard Gann (guitar) and Leo Didkovsky (drums). The press release concludes with both of the aforementioned latest lead singles from the two separate projects are described to “…exhibit the deeply satisfying evolution of the Liturgy sound — heavy & heavily orchestrated, with the two tracks simultaneously acting as polar opposites — ‘God of Love’ serving as the crystallization of many elements found on their groundbreaking 2011 sophomore album Aesthethica, while ‘Apparition Of The Eternal Church’ finds Hunter Hunt-Hendrix and Liturgy pushing further into experimental territory, blurring the boundary between metal and classical music.”
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